Efforts to enhance Latin American farmers’ climate resilience has received a boost with the signing of an agreement between the Green Climate Fund (GCF) and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The signing of the Funded Activity Agreement (FAA) on Saturday opens the way for the transfer of USD 25.1 million in GCF funds to the Poverty, Reforestation, Energy and Climate Change Project (PROEZA) in eastern Paraguay to make land use more climate sensitive. This includes providing credit to plant forests that provide benefits in bioenergy, timber usage and silvo-pastoral production, which combines forestry management with livestock grazing.

FAO Assistant Director-General for Programme Support and Technical Cooperation, Roberto Ridolfi, said this “is a very important step in the growing partnership between FAO and GCF." "PROEZA is the first fully-fledged project funded by GCF. FAO will work with the Government of Paraguay and GCF to respond to adverse effects of climate change by investing in low-emission and climate-resilient development," he added.

Andreas Biermann, Deputy Director of GCF’s Division of Mitigation and Adaptation, said: “GCF is proud to support PROEZA, a project which will enhance the resilience to climate change of the most vulnerable in Paraguay and enable them to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions by afforestation while at the same time improving their economic situation.”

The Paraguay project, to be implemented by FAO following its approval by the GCF Board last year, will improve natural resource management - to both enhance climate resilience and reduce the emission of greenhouse gases from the land sector.

Climate action in agriculture generally provides both adaptation and mitigation benefits, as land sector activities currently account for about 30 percent of global emissions.